6/26/2014

Did a Haley Barbour-supported super-PAC produce a controversial flyer that used race-based arguments to encourage Democrats to vote for Thad Cochran? This post exposes remarkable similarities between that flyer, which did not bear a notice stating who was responsible for its production, and another flyer producers by Mississippi Conservatives, a super-PAC created by establishment Republicans to oppose McDaniel.

As I told you last night, Charles C. Johnson posted this shot of an outrageous flyer that portrayed Chris McDaniel as a racist:

Johnson says he got this from a Mississippi voter, who told him: “Someone walked right up to my wife’s car and handed her this flyer, almost at the door of the voting station.”

As you can see, the flyer says: “The Tea Party intends to prevent blacks from voting on Tuesday.” It claims McDaniel “made racist comments on his radio show.” And, worst of all, it appears to openly encourage Democrats to vote for someone they don’t intend to support in the general election, saying:

MS law is clear. Anyone who did not vote in the June 3rd Democratic primary may vote in this Senate Run-off on Tuesday, June 24. If anyone asks you who you are voting for now or in November, tell them it’s a secret ballot and you don’t have to answer them.

No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in the primary in which he participates.

Thus, the flyer appears to instruct Democrat voters on how to evade the requirements of the state’s open primary law, by telling them they can vote in the Republican primary — and coaching them not to reveal that they don’t intend to vote Republican in the general election.

Charles allowed me to break the news on this blog. Here it is: a flyer put out by Mississippi Conservatives. Here is the first page:

And the second page:

(Charles watermarked the evidence with the name of his new blog which launches soon.)

As you can see, the same exact arguments that are made in the pro-Cochran flyer put out by Mississippi Conservatives are also made in the controversial flyer that made race-based arguments for Cochran:

The Mississippi Conservatives’ arguments are on the left; the arguments from the controversial race-based flyer are on the right.

“Supports federal funding of Mississippi public schools” in the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer is the second item on the right in the anonymous flyer appealing to race.

“Provided millions more in federal funds for HBCU’s [Historically Black Colleges and Universities]” in the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer is also addressed in the second item on the right in the anonymous flyer appealing to race.

The reference to the Jackson Medical Mall — the third item in the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer — is item three in the anonymous race-based flyer.

“Thad’s opponent voted against funding for our Civil Rights Museum” in the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer is echoed in the first item on the right in the anonymous flyer appealing to race: “Voted against MS Civil Rights Museum.”

“Thad’s opponent opposes federal funding of Mississippi public schools” in the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer is quoted almost word for word in the second item on the right in the anonymous flyer appealing to race: “Opposes federal funding of public schools.”

And that reference in the race-based flyer saying Thad Cochran “Supports All Mississippians?” That’s the very slogan used at the bottom of the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer!

Again, we are looking at the Mississippi Conservatives’ flyer on the left, with its slogan “For All Mississippians,” shown with the race-based flyer on the right, which says of Cochran: “Supports All Mississippians.”

The folks who put out these two flyers sure conveyed the same messages to voters.

They even used the exact same picture of Cochran!

Sure, this could all be a coincidence. But I think it’s time reporters put some hard questions to the folks behind the Mississippi Conservatives super-PAC.

If this is what establishment Republicanism is about, you can count me out.

227 Responses to “Anti-McDaniel Race-Based Flyer Sure Looks Similar to the Work of Barbour’s Super-PAC”

But I think it’s time reporters put some hard questions to the folks behind the Mississippi Conservatives super-PAC.

They won’t. Their candidate won.

If this is what establishment Republicanism is about, you can count me out.

Ditto. I can’t stand to listen to Haley Barbour’s lies about, “bringing the conservative message to black voters.” Cochran only won because the message he, Barbour’s super-PAC, and the Democrat party operatives they worked with all brought to black voters is he promised to spend like a Democrat.

As a graphic designer I have to say that’s hardly a smoking gun proving Barbour was 100% behind the flyer, however it doesn’t eliminate the possibility of Barbour’s design staff colluding with a 3rd party on developing talking points for the flyer.

Squish, squish in the context of the 21st century, in the context of 2014.

Yeech.

This is a human condition that’s best manifested by the increasingly left-leaning tilt of the public towards certain major social issues, particularly the one involving same-sex marriage. That in a nutshell illustrates why people like Cochran can be, or has to be, ideologically squishy in a way that would have been laughable years ago.

Can you say Pyrrhic Victory? Undeniably, the GOP establishment pulled a fast one on McDaniel and returned Thad Cochran to the Senate in direct defiance of Republicans in Mississippi. Cochran, Barbour, et al conspired to undermine Republican voters preferred candidate, eliminate McDaniel, and force Thad Cochran on an unwilling electorate. The cost of this blatant treachery may prove more than even the most corrupt gaggle of GOP politicians in the Magnolia State can pay.

Legitimacy and integrity are now at issue, and Thad Cochran, Haley Barbour, and the GOP establishment have squandered the little they had gaming an election. Now let the cockroaches endure the very bright light of scrutiny they sought to evade by omitting the required statement of responsibility on the telltale flier. It’s a dead give-away and it’s an accusatory finger pointing directly at the cabal of faithless politicians. The GOP is unfit to lead the nation.

I am in Virginia,but I have decided to sit out this election. I am sure Gillespie does not want to be sullied with my disgusting, horrible racist vote. It will be the first time since I have been 18 I have not voted in an election, but surely the GOP doesn’t want terrible, evil racists such as myself voting.

And, worst of all, it appears to openly encourage Democrats to vote for someone they don’t intend to support in the general election, saying:

MS law is clear. Anyone who did not vote in the June 3rd Democratic primary may vote in this Senate Run-off on Tuesday, June 24. If anyone asks you who you are voting for now or in November, tell them it’s a secret ballot and you don’t have to answer them.

This advice is wrong. The relevant statute says:

No person shall be eligible to participate in any primary election unless he intends to support the nominations made in the primary in which he participates.

But the law does not require him to state that he intends to support the party’s nominee, nor is there any way to enforce compliance. The advice is correct: a voter does not have to disclose for whom he intends to vote, ever.

11. Can you say Pyrrhic Victory? Undeniably, the GOP establishment pulled a fast one on McDaniel and returned Thad Cochran to the Senate in direct defiance of Republicans in Mississippi. Cochran, Barbour, et al conspired to undermine Republican voters preferred candidate, eliminate McDaniel, and force Thad Cochran on an unwilling electorate. The cost of this blatant treachery may prove more than even the most corrupt gaggle of GOP politicians in the Magnolia State can pay…

ropelight (0c556a) — 6/26/2014 @ 8:09 am

I emailed the RNC and expressed exactly that sentiment. It’s widely felt.

Remember that headline, bookmark this page and circle June 24 on your calendar, because the result of Tuesday’s primary runoff in Mississippi was an ill omen that portends Republican defeat in November.

Check back here on Wednesday, Nov. 5, to see if my helpless sense of dark foreboding doom is correct, but today it seems obvious: If the Republican Party spends money to turn out Democrat voters against a conservative in a GOP primary — the paid professional party apparatus doing this as a deliberate strategy — what message does that send to conservatives, whose votes are crucial to whatever hope Republicans have of winning an electoral majority?

…However, there is no question at all that what the Republican Party did in Mississippi was wrong — both morally and politically. To seek the assistance of your political enemies in order to defend the seat of a corrupt and ineffective septuagenarian like Thad Cochran? This is not, as some GOP operatives are telling each other, a clever “strategy” for defeating an insurgent challenge; this is lying and cheating — a breach of trust that brings shame to the party, per se.

If Republicans are not trustworthy, if they are not honest, why would any honest person call himself a Republican? Loyalty must be reciprocated in order to have any meaning, and GOP leadership on Tuesday betrayed the loyalty of their party’s supporters…

I read this yesterday, but I can’t remember where for proper attribution: “There is a difference between Democratic politicians and Republican politicians, but the difference isn’t as great as the difference between Republican politicians and Republican voters.” I’m done with the Republican party. From now on, I’m voting for Libertarian or Constitutional party candidates. Yes, I know, if enough of us do it, it ensures a Democratic victory. So be it. Let It Burn.

Mrs. Grobnik went to vote in the Chicago primary. The precinct captain handed her her ballot in the little sleeve and told her, “I saved you the trouble of filling it out; just drop it in the box”. She went to take it out of the sleeve and he said, “What are you doing”. She said, “I want to see how I voted”. He said, “You can’t do that; it’s supposed to be by secret ballot”.

Ummmm … GentleBeings … which party has the track record, particularly in recent years, of regularly using emotionally manipulative appeals as the backbone of their election campaigns ?

Which party is known for using misleading robocalls ?

Which party works in concert with DailyKos and Salon and the NYTimes supporting carefully-selected candidates for Republican nominations ?

More specifically, when DailyKos and Salon and the NYTimes supports a Tea Party candidate, does anyone in their right mind believe that those specific media are working to have *that* Tea party candidate for nomination elected running against a Democrat in the actual election ?

When was the last time the GOP successfully coordinated this kind of election influencing ?

When was the last time the Dems successfully coordinated this kind of election influencing ?

Agreed, if the GOP establishment did this, it is a Bad Thing. This tactic is a Bad Thing, no matter who does it …

“Sure, this could all be a coincidence. But I think it’s time reporters put some hard questions to the folks behind the Mississippi Conservatives super-PAC.” – I think it’s time reporters put some hard questions to all parties and the PACs of all parties.

Steve57 #15 … in that last vote which mattered for Obamacare, how many RINOs voted for Obamacare ?

The single most important concept to un derstand for this November’s election is simple …

Current Democrats will cast their votes as they did for Obamacare and to pass similarly toxic legislation, regulation, foreign and domestic policies …

Current conservatives will cast their votes against such things …

Current RINOs *may* cast some of their votes with the Democrats, but most of their votes will be with the GOP …

Do we really prefer a Democrat who supports few or none of our values casting votes as our representative rather than someone GOP or Tea Party who supports most but not necessarily all of our values casting votes as our representative ?

As I’ve said and meant on every thread here about the MS election, I think Thad is sclerotic and too old to be effective. He’s the kind of lifer pol from both parties who have helped ruin Washington and this country. He should have voluntarily retired and I highly doubt he’ll serve out his term should he be re-elected. This was a dirty nasty primary election all around, filled with lies and shenanigans and political maneuvering from many sides, in which Cochran ultimately prevailed. I just wish I could believe as some of you apparently do, that McDaniel is worthy of all the luv and support he’s getting now because he lost. I say this because all indications are that he was a pretty flawed individual and candidate from the get-go, and that he too conducted himself and his campaign with far less integrity than one might expect or desire of a Tea Party standard bearer. I think we need to use our brains and pick our “heroes” very carefully.

They were going after blacks precisely because they were not “liberal Democrats” and would not be bothered by the conservative position on the environment, abortion, foreign policy, nominations for the courts of law etc.

They went after them on symbolic issues, like the “Civil Rights Museum” and on federal appropriations for this or that.

They did not bring to them any “Republican ideas”

And it could be the biggest reason for opposition to McDaniel was his position on immigration, although the idea that he wouldn’t want pass other laws like they liked was a factor.

Washington State election history suggests that McDaniel will not prevail even if he can show that tens of thousands of votes were cast illegally by voters who previously voted on the Democrat side in the Primary. In our Governor’s race ten years ago, Rossi lost by 133 votes after a number of recounts. It was determined in a court case that about 1700 more votes had been counted than there were voters. Rossi was unable to show that these 1700 votes had been cast for his opponent. Which makes sense, the vote is secret, and once the ballots are in the ballot box, you can’t trace them back to anyone in particular. The obvious thing would have been to declare the election invalid, but the judge in his wisdom decided that since Rossi couldn’t show that these votes were for his opponent, a feature of any secret ballot, his opponent deserved to win.

One thought in the present case is to fine each voter who illegally voted in the runoff $1000, if that is consistent with Misssissippi law. If there are enough illegal votes to potentially sway the result, then use this money to hold another runoff. Repeat the process until the final result is beyond question. The determination of the number of illegal votes cast in this runoff should take little more than a few simple queries. Assuming the hard drive hasn’t crashed and been shredded.

Stalin used to control the vote by controlling the counting process. The Democrats control the vote by controlling access to the ballot boxes. The subsequent count is probably accurate.

McDaniel stepped up for limited government at a time when our pitiful brokedick insolvent slut of a country is in extraordinary peril.

Whereas Meghan’s cowardwhore disgrace of a daddy stepped up for a depends-wearing addled pork-loving nastty-assed mississippi white boy who goes along to get along and thinks all them big-boobied nurses what bring him his vodka ovaltine sippy cup at night are almost certainly deeply deeply racist.

While I would prefer that Chris McDaniel be Ole Miss’ Senator instead of Thad Cochran, we still must defeat the Democrat in the general election in November.
We have too many people who wish to cut off their nose to spite their face.
The left wing is our enemy—not Thad Cochran.
It is possible to be angry at both Thad Cochran AND the left wing at the same time, yet still recognize that the left wing (in this case, the Democrat nominee for Senate in MS) is the greater enemy.
I’m learning that for some people on our side, it is more about personalities, grudge matches, and scoring points, rather than winning general elections.
Regardless of whether you like, love, hate, or don’t even know the name of our legislators, they’re still going to make decisions that affect our lives—even if we stay home on Election Day.

Sometimes you have to pinch your nose and choose the lesser of tho evils. We do it every day of our lives. Did anybody ever work a job they weren’t crazy about ? Drive a car that isn’t their “dream car” ? Live in a less than ideal house or apartment ?
(Everybody just raised their hand.)
So why do people insist they can only support the perfect (or near perfect) political nominee ?
Good Allah.

“The obvious thing would have been to declare the election invalid, but the judge in his wisdom decided that since Rossi couldn’t show that these votes were for his opponent, a feature of any secret ballot, his opponent deserved to win”.

I like your comment, bob, and I agree the obvious thing would have been to declare the election as invalid, and, if the judge was truly wise, should have declared it invalid. I don’t think the defendant’s fraud should have to be proven, just the fraud’s existence. “Deserve’s” got nothing to do with it.

bobathome-I agree with you that I’d like to see the Mississippi election board (or whatever they call it there) take immediate action to identify any voters who may illegally have voted twice–that is, in both the D and R primaries. That would be time consuming, but really should not be too difficult to ferret out. Charging them with voter fraud will not change the outcome (secret ballot) and likely would not result in a second run-off unless the numbers show to be absolutely massive. But action against dishonest voters might act as a deterrent in future elections where a run-off is involved and might result in changes to tighten the verification process for party run-offs. Nominal Dems who voted in the R primary but not in the D primary? –not anything they can do about that.

Y’know guys, banks have auditors, at different levels, who make sure that the $numbers$ are (for the most part,scoff) on the up and up (don’t start with me, Sammy) without invading individuals privacy. Why should it be so hard to make sure votes tally up?

So, a question arises: should there be an audit trail for ballots? Would an awkward but usable “break-the-glass” method to go, individually, from illegal voter to ballot cast be such an affront to secret ballots that anything gained in legitimacy wouldn’t be worth it?

In the WA state case above, the Democrat election officials dumped several thousand ballots into the mix after the election to get their guy over. Shouldn’t there be a way to stop that?

And with electronic ballots and the possibility of large frauds, would a system without an audit trail even be workable?

I’ve felt for some time that Republicans have to match the tactics of the Democrats, even the most disagreeable (the scorched earth attack visited on all national Republicans). But it seems the only time they use that playbook, it’s to put down a Tea Party candidate (note all the Hillary ammo ignored – they could destroy her now, but they apparently don’t want to). If you vote Republican today, is there any doubt that you are voting for a genteel party that will happily echo the other party as it has rejected the ideas of the rank and file and, therefore, has no beliefs at all?

McDaniel’s race is upsetting.
But there’s too much emotion being thrown around.
If there aren’t enough tea party votes within the GOP primary in MS, how will they find enough votes in the general election in order to win if they were to go ‘third party’ ?

The best way to change the GOP establishment, is from within.
We have to win GOP primaries with tea party nominees who aren’t putting their foot in their mouth every other week.
In fact there is a model for transforming a major American political party—the New Left took over the Democrat party and successfully turned it from the party of JFK and Scoop Jackson, and into the party of Saul Alinsky and Joseph Stalin.

Ditto for you, feets. Your profane potty mouth comments posted in the middle of the night when everyone assumes the other people have had a drink or two is one thing. In the clear light of day not so much. Maybe you should stick to commenting on food and vacation trips where you are fun and informative and amusing, and steer clear of politics unless you can manage to formulate your thoughts in a civil manner. BTW, I can’t think of anybody who posts here who is a John McCain fan and he comes from AZ, so why the crazy obsession with him, today, anyway?

I’m noticing that neither the “establishment republican” or the “tea party republican” had enough votes and supporters, or there would not have even been a run-off in MS the first place. As a result of the run-off nastiness both McDaniel and Cochran were damaged, and they also damaged themselves. Very bad politics all around.

ditto for me? i don’t claim to represent anybody much less aspire to wield power over people’s lives

and Meghan’s coward daddy, he is an integral part of the sippy cup cabal

his Republican Main Street Partnership is a Key Player in the war against limited government tea party candidates

LaTourette said his organization’s Republican Mainstreet Partnership PAC spent $400,000 in Mississippi to help Cochran, including $100,000 spent on “boots on the ground” between the June 3 primary and yesterday’s runoff, which happened after neither candidate obtained more than 50 percent of the initial primary vote.

He also noted that his group ran ads to support the victory of incumbent GOP congressman Richard Hanna, who defeated a Tea Party challenger in New York.

and sweet pickle, if you’re so able and willing and eager to tolerate senator sippy cup’s labeling of tea party voters as racists

surely my honest if mildly vituperative commentings are equally welcome in this important dialog

but to be honest it’s 11 here on the west coast and I have to get going here in a bit but i will be back later

I have the feeling that an audit trail for votes might change the paradigm (in close or losing races)from votes counterfeited to votes purchased. Right now, a blank ballot is worthless -just print off a few thousand, fill’em out and stuff away. But make that ballot unique and traceable, and you have a potential commodity.

As for auditable systems, there are methods involving encryption that make going from the voter log to the ballot much easier than going from the ballot to the voter. Assuming that obtaining voter logs and getting access to the encryption keys/machines is difficult and cannot be done covertly, there is little danger to ballot secrecy.

Frankly, rifling through secret ballots is such a taboo that I’m not sure encryption is needed. Getting caught doing that would be pretty awful. But then again, getting caught fracking with the IRS info ought to have been pretty awful, too, so maybe you need it.

I think we should let the credit card companies (oh yes, I do) set up a secure internet voting portal (not the govmnt I.R.S!) to vet and maintain registered voter lists for every election. It would be a snap – they could do it standing on their heads. Next to follow are all smartphone voting apps, voter guide apps, empowerment, apps, it is job creation I tell you!

The enemy is the Left—it’s not Karl Rove.
What we want to do is persuade our GOP establishment friends—but not by sitting home on Election Day and pouting—that just emboldens the establishment to believe that there are fewer “conservative” voters out there.
We need to change the party from within, just as the Democrats did.

No, I’m not a wolf in sheep’s clothing or a troll. I am a conservative Republican who is tired of getting stabbed in the back by the Republican establishment. What happened Tuesday in Mississippi will be replayed here in Utah in 2016. The rumors are Oren Hatch will get his political machine up and running to do everything to defeat Mike Lee’s re-election. There may be conservatives who like Hatch, McCain, McConnell and others just because they have an “R” after their name, but I’m not one of them.

Why do Republican establishment types keep bad-mouthing the Tea Party? If they want me to leave the party, I gladly will.

I don’t know about Mississippi, but in Texas when you vote in a primary, it is recorded with the county voter registrar’s office if you voted in the Democratic or Republican primary. It doesn’t say who you voted for.

Poll workers should have had access to that information in Mississippi. If the records show that a voter voted in the Republican primary, they would have been eligible to vote in the run-off. If they voted in the Democratic primary, they would not have been eligible. And if Mississippi doesn’t have the ability to computerize those records, they must be using the same computers and programs of the IRS and now the EPA.

Those records of primary votes could be printed out for each polling station (the precincts) so that the poll workers could check the records right then and there.

Also, in Texas, a candidate can pull previous voting records and early voting records are published on the county registrar’s web site. So if I vote today, my name as having voted, appears on the web site the next day.

Seems to me that Mississippi needs to do some re-vamping of their voting records system. Had it been available to poll workers, and candidates, and then published, there would be no question if McDaniel lost to cross over voters who were ineligible to vote in a Republican run-off.

elissa, emotion has nothing to do with it. I could run through a litany of items on which the Republicans have convinced me they’re lying to get my vote. I’ll pick one example; Marco Rubio convinced me back when he was trying to sell his gang of 8 immigration bill that the GOP has no intention of repealing Obamacare, since one of his selling points was that illegal aliens who “come out of the shadows” wouldn’t be eligible for Obamacare.

“And then they don’t qualify for any federal benefits. This is an important point. No federal benefits, no food stamps, no welfare, no Obamacare.”

The way he lumped it in with other federal benefits, which aren’t going away, convinced me neither is Obamacare.

As an aside, the quote is from an Ann Coulter column,”If Rubio’s amnesty is so great, why is he lying?” He was lying about more than the fact that the GOP was never serious about “repeal and replace,” but I’ll just stick with Obamacare. If you’re interested you can read about his immigration bill lies here:

A rift is growing between Tea Party activists and other Republicans over health care.

Some influential conservatives are now saying the is too entrenched to repeal.

Wow, who could have seen that coming?

Take the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, an influential business lobbying group. When the ACA passed in 2010, the chamber got behind the to fight it at the U.S. Supreme Court.

“It’s time in my opinion to go back to the drawing board … and thus, we support legislation in the House to repeal it,” chamber President Tom Donohue in his annual address back in 2011.

But now he’s striking a different tone. “We’re not going to get rid of that bill, and so we’re going to have to devise ways to make it work,” Donohue said at a recent news conference.

What the big donors want, they get (and they want amnesty, too; figure the odds of it not happening).

Emotion has nothing to do with it when I observe that GOP voters are middle lass. But when GOP pols have to choose between making their voters happy or their donors happy, they’ll choose their donors every time. And the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s interests are opposed to mine. This is what the Mississippi run-off was about. And he party said screw the voters.

It’s a little more complicated than “just liking hatch, McCain, McConnell, because they have an “R” after their name.”
The GOP primary is the time and place for having an intramural brawl. Sometimes we conservatives have won, such as when Mike Lee took out Bob Bennett, and when Marco Rubio defeated then-Governor Crist in the FL Senate primary.
But once our party decides upon a nominee, we have to get out there and vote for that nominee in the general election, even when our preferred guy has lost the primary to an evil establisment type.
If we just sit home and pout on Election Day, or we try to spite Karl Rove by voting for Joe Bag’O’Donuts who is running on the Constitution Party ticket, we’re just handing left wing Democrats a victory on a silver platter.

If you’re watching a sports game on tv, and you’re team is on the wrong side of the scoreboard, you can just shut if off and go mow the lawn, and ultimately, the result of the game won’t affect your life. But in politics, whether or not we like, love, hate, or don’t even know the name of our legislator, they’re still going to make decisions that affect our lives—as well as lives of people around the world.

Where will you go hot head stompy foot Zoltan? To another country? To an underground bunker? To a deserted island?

Some republican establishment types badmouth conservatives and/or tea party types and call them crazy or fringe. Feelings get hurt. Some social cons and tea party types badmouth establishment types and call them RINOs or worse. Feelings get hurt. This is politics. Are you new? You will always have political opponents to contend with both inside and outside your party. The far left and moderate left have been at war with each other forever. The far right and the moderate (establishment) right have been in conflict forever and now the teas have been added into the mix which is a very healthy addition toward moving the party rightward. Did you pay any attention in history class? Leaders and personalities come and go. Movements rise and fall. That’s how parties morph and change with the times. The voters and the ballot box are always the deciders.

I’m just as frustrated and disgusted as anyone, with the establishment Republicans, with the citizens of Mississippi, and with entitled old Cochran.

But just because these carry identical messages does not mean they were prepared by the same people. Any crank could have gotten ahold of the Mississippi Conservatives’ info and made a stack of their own homemade pamphlets. As far as I’ve heard, we only have evidence of one of these anonymous sheets being handed out.

Let’s not jump to conclusions. There’s plenty for us to be justly angry with the Mississippi Conservatives about without accusing them of breaking the law based on one flier.

“If Republicans are not trustworthy, if they are not honest, why would any honest person call himself a Republican? Loyalty must be reciprocated in order to have any meaning, and GOP leadership on Tuesday betrayed the loyalty of their party’s supporters…”

What we want to do is persuade our GOP establishment friends—but not by sitting home on Election Day and pouting—that just emboldens the establishment to believe that there are fewer “conservative” voters out there.

I have always voted since turning 18, I’ll never sit out an election. As far as persuading GOP establishment goes—good luck. I was never a registered Republican(I’m an Independent), and if ANY Republican can tell me what mechanisms in the “comprehensive” immigration reform would prevent what’s happening now with our southern border, I might support such legislation. But they can’t.
And that’s just one issue.

I’m inclined to agree with elissa. Politicians for life ruined Washington, enriching themselves by erecting public projects at taxpayer expense, regardless of need. It’s short-term thinking that has indebted our country which will soon be overcome by the interest on the principle. Eventually, the Fed is going to raise interest rates. What happens then? It won’t matter who the President or Congressmen is. I didn’t get involve on Patterico’s posts on the Fed, but I do know that having the money supply controlled by a few people who meet in secret and give cryptic forecasts on money policy isn’t the best way to approach the economy.

My friend in alaska, who was a writein candidate for the Senate, informs me that Murkowski has not made a statement against Begich yet, a man who holds his seat due to fraudulent indictment, Franken
does as well, through fraud, they put up some blanc mange to challenge him, the reborn Bourbons, think this is the way to secure power,

When I say that we need to ‘persuade our establishment friends,’ I’m saying that conservatives need to win primaries by persuading “establishment voters” to vote for the upstart conservative in the primary, instead of the establishment politician.
Mike Lee did it. Marco Rubio did it. Oh yeah, and some dude named Ronald Reagan did it.

It’s funny how so many conservatives cite Reagan as a great example for so many things, yet when it comes to actually getting out there and trying to replicate what he did, too many of them just throw their hands in the air and say “I’m outta here !” or “They can forget about my vote in November !”

If we just sit home and pout on Election Day, or we try to spite Karl Rove by voting for Joe Bag’O’Donuts who is running on the Constitution Party ticket, we’re just handing left wing Democrats a victory on a silver platter.

In 2004, I voted for Pat Toomey in the Republican senatorial primary, and he came close, but still lost to Arlen Specter. In the general election, I voted for Jim Clymer, the Constitution Party candidate, to send a message, but only because Senator Specter was so far ahead of the Democratic nominee that it was safe to do so; nearly 200,000 Pennsylvanians did the same thing.

In our system of single-member districts, third party candidates are almost always lost causes and wasted votes. I’m willing to waste my vote to make a statement, but not if wasting it helps a Democrat.

It’s funny how so many conservatives cite Reagan as a great example for so many things, yet when it comes to actually getting out there and trying to replicate what he did, too many of them just throw their hands in the air and say “I’m outta here !” or “They can forget about my vote in November !”

If it makes you feel any better, I’ve not voted for a Democrat in nearly thirty years. And I was a registered Democrat for the first 25 years of my voting eligibility. Being an Independent, I can’t vote in the primaries where I live.

That’s your choice to not register as a Republican and thereby disqualify yourself from being able to vote in GOP primaries.
But if you do tend to vote Republican in general elections, then why not change your registration so you can vote in the primaries and influence the eventual nominee ?

I’m noticing that neither the “establishment republican” or the “tea party republican” had enough votes and supporters, or there would not have even been a run-off in MS the first place. As a result of the run-off nastiness both McDaniel and Cochran were damaged, and they also damaged themselves. Very bad politics all around.

They were damaged, but there still had to be a winner. The establishment R’s revealed how far and how low they were – and are – willing to go to win. Consider this the litmus test for other close run offs.

As such, I am looking at the wanna-bes and not yet declared (Rand, Rubio, Cruz, McDaniels, Christie, etc.) in an entirely different light now. Who’s backing them? It matters. More than ever.

On the 50th anniversary of Freedom Summer, the drive to secure black voting rights that met with violence and even murder, Cochran found himself under sharp attack from the right for relying on black voters and for “playing the race card,” a charge conservatives normally reserve for Democrats.

On the Breitbart Web Site, Joel Pollak wrote: “Cochran played the race card, dividing the electorate for the sake of his own decrepit incumbency.” Another Breitbart post read: “The fact that they played the race card and ran mailers and robo calls in African-American areas accusing their own party of being racist is downright despicable.” Twitter lit up with similar comments Tuesday night after Cochran was declared the victor.

This rancor could usefully challenge Republican leaders to grapple openly with the role of race within their coalition. And that a long-serving, quite conservative Republican senator could survive only by expanding the GOP electorate beyond the faithful is a reminder of just how conservative the party’s primary electorate has become. Broadening the party by admitting the inadequacy of anti-government shibboleths cannot be a one-state, one-time, one-incumbent proposition.

Here’s a photo of the Obama Person hard at work watching monitoring !!1! the World Cup while on a flight to Minnesota.https://twitter.com/dougmillsnyt/status/482215333411831808/photo/1
And as many people have been pointing out on the interwebs, still no photo has been released of him “monitoring” Benghazi, as he so passionately claims he was doing.

If it makes you feel any better, I’ve not voted for a Democrat in nearly thirty years. And I was a registered Democrat for the first 25 years of my voting eligibility. Being an Independent, I can’t vote in the primaries where I live.

That’s why Mississippi’s open primary system is good. For years, the closed primary system in some Southern states kept the Democrats in power locally well after they became red states in presidential elections. All of the action was in the Democratic primary, so if you wanted any say at all, you had to register as a Democrat.

Kentucky, reliably a red state in the presidential campaigns, has a Democrat governor and a Democrat controlled state Senate. They’re more conservative Democrats, to be sure, but Democrats nevertheless.

I’ve been saying that (usually in more words) for so long I don’t know if I made it up or not. They’re the State-Over-All Party (SOAP, that I did make up), we’re not in that party. We lose, because of being human. RAH, paraphrased — Most people want to be told what to do; some want to tell others what to do; and there are those rare individuals who want to decide but only for themselves.

narsisco, as I stated above it is necessary, although time consuming, but should not be difficult to track any person who illegally cast a ballot in both the Dem and R primaries (shown by the examples in the Gateway piece)and dealing sternly with those voters. But finding even bunches of fraudulent voters will not “overturn” the Cochran win in and of itself. The only thing that will overturn the Cochran win is a whole new run-off in which McDaniel wins instead. I’m not sure that we have any regular commenters who live in MS to help us understand the likelihood of them scheduling another election, of having rules and procedures in place to assure its legitimacy this time around, or how the people of MS would feel over all about the expense of putting on another election and enduring weeks more of political ads.

In the long run it is up to the people and election commission of MS to decide if they are satisfied with this election –not us from Florida or Texas or Illinois or Utah or California. Does “too dang many black people voted for Thad for his win to be legitimate” really sound like a great narrative for McDaniel to hang his hat on and go to press with?

Phil Bryant will not reverse regardless, it is in the nature of an old Dixiecrat, trying to save himself, at the cost of a faustian bargain, it’s striking how real reformer like Bret Schundler, were blocked from the Jersey statehouse, by McGreevey, then stabbed in the back by Christie and thrown to the sharks,

In fact there is a model for transforming a major American political party—the New Left took over the Democrat party and successfully turned it from the party of JFK and Scoop Jackson, and into the party of Saul Alinsky and Joseph Stalin.

Elephant Stone (5c2aa0) — 6/26/2014 @ 10:43 am

You neglect to mention they’ve taken over both parties and aren’t apt to let go
They prefer the one party system as is and will gladly stamp out any attempt to change the outcome. Mississippi has shown the truth of the matter.

I was raised by conservative parents in the most conservative county in my state amid conservative uncles, aunts, cousins and family friends. The “poor us”, “everybody’s picking on conservatives”, “nobody’ll ever give us a fair shake” and “we’re eternal victims” meme was not in their vocabulary. I do not think victimhood or feelings of impotence are remotely natural conservative traits or reactions. Quite the opposite, and frankly this whole hand wringing “woe is me we’re thwarted at every turn” cr#p is getting old.

We’ve never had a president, committed to the tranformation of America, at a fundamental level, who has neutered the press for the most part, who is totally contemptuous of the law, who is driving us over the cliff at mach 3, and the Tea Party, is basically the only ones pushing the handbrake,

#36 & #95, Elissa, The “difficulty” of identifying the illegal voters should be close to zero. In my State of Washington, the counties routinely list all the absentee ballots collected each day and make this list of voters available to the contestants the next day so that they can harass those whom they think will vote for them who haven’t returned a ballot. The process for MS of crediting each voter for their participation, whether in Republican or Democrat primary, should be nearly complete. Certainly the primary participation list should have been done four weeks ago, and it is a rather simple matter to go thru the precinct records and credit the runoff voters. I’d think one data entry clerk could process several precinct records each hour. After all, the clerk is given a screen showing everyone in the precinct, and all they have to do is mark the cast votes against the list of all voters. Once these lists are compiled, and the primary list should have been done four weeks ago, it is a matter of a few tenths of a second for your laptop to figure out who voted who should not have.

My concern is the now classic Democrat response, “What difference does it now make?” If the number of illegal voters is large, MS law may not require a new vote. Apparently, Washington law over-looked this possibility.

75. The GOP primary is the time and place for having an intramural brawl. Sometimes we conservatives have won, such as when Mike Lee took out Bob Bennett, and when Marco Rubio defeated then-Governor Crist in the FL Senate primary.

But once our party decides upon a nominee, we have to get out there and vote for that nominee in the general election, even when our preferred guy has lost the primary to an evil establisment type.
If we just sit home and pout on Election Day, or we try to spite Karl Rove by voting for Joe Bag’O’Donuts who is running on the Constitution Party ticket, we’re just handing left wing Democrats a victory on a silver platter.

Elephant Stone (5c2aa0) — 6/26/2014 @ 11:55 am

Do you even understand the nature of what just happened? The Republican party has just handed left wing Democrats victory on a silver platter. By confirming that every name the leftists ever called conservatives is true, and richly deserved. An intramural brawl is one thing, running on an ultimately suicidal campaign strategy of, “Yes, the Democrats have been right all along. Conservatives are racist nutjobs, don’t vote for them” is a whole ‘nother kettle of fish. It won’t be water under the bridge come November. The RNC, Haley Barbour, Karl Rove, et al, have given the left all the campaign material they’d ever need.

All they have to do is recycle Thad Cochran’s robocall to prove the only reason conservatives oppose Obama is racism. There is no other reason. Now even he Republican escablishment has admitted to that. Guilty as charged, said the Republicans.

Don’t you understand how thoroughly the Stupid Party has played into the Democrats’ campaign strategy? Just to win a primary, when either candidate could have carried Mississippi in the general election?

Nothing says that the Republican party is racist more than that it has a presence in Mississippi, Steve. Mississippi is racist. And corrupt. And stupid. And it smells bad and sexually molests dogs too. Mississippi is not the Republicans. It is not anything American.

Kentucky, reliably a red state in the presidential campaigns, has a Democrat governor and a Democrat controlled state Senate.

I don’t think there are virtually any liberal counterparts to that. Simply put, there are a whole host of solidly, ludicrously, maniacally leftwing jurisdictions throughout America, best exemplified by the city of Detroit, in which not only will any “progressive” running for office automatically trounce a conservative — or even centrist — Republican (or, by fluke, Democrat), but where the margin of support for the liberal candidate will be in the high 80-percentile range, if not higher.

I bet the type of voter most spooked by the accusations of racism lodged against Tea Party candidates, and who will hold his/her nose and vote for default choices like Cochran, would — in reality — rather have a government that was 100% white liberal versus one that was 100% black conservative.

If liberalism were a race or ethnicity, that ultimately is the only “race” or “ethnicity” that the voters most easily swayed by the use of the race card give a damn about.

#109, Nikita, Steve is correct, as usual. Cochran is a disgrace, and the consequences of his “victory” will be only too evident as the Democrats plow through the materials spewed out by Cochran’s supporters. But I am in Elissa’s camp. We shouldn’t be quitting or giving up. And losing one in Mississippi (and another in Idaho,) isn’t the end of the world. We are a lot better off battling this in the ballot box than facing HteWon’s carefully screened Westpoint Generals as they unleash thermobaric bombs against protesters.

Mississippi has a very dismal history, particularly under Democrat rule, but the people in MS deserve a chance to better themselves. It is preposterous to write them off. If you want to write someone off, how about Boston, L. A., N. Y. C., S. F., or Chicago? But even there, a substantial minority of the population rejects communism and class warfare. We need to rally those who want this country to prosper. We don’t need cleansing. Especially on your terms.

==Do you even understand the nature of what just happened? The Republican party has just handed left wing Democrats victory on a silver platter…Don’t you understand how thoroughly the Stupid Party has played into the Democrats’ campaign strategy? ==

You deny it, but this an example of a strawman, a purely emotional, not solid or direct response to another commenter’s different points, Steve57. You may be right about the “silver platter”. Who knows. But at this point there is absolutely nothing–no poll or survey or indication at this time– which supports your near hysteria that conservative-to-the-bone MS will suddenly elect a Democrat senator. Or that`anything that happens or is said in MS affects races in other states.

You’ll nevah catch me challenging your knowledge of guns, car engines or boats. I defer to your male superiority there. But politics is another matter. You really do occasionally misread political situations and signals, particularly in states with which you are not very familiar.

Some of our friends like to talk about being tough fighters, but when push Karl Rove comes to shove, they seem to want to give up and go retire to their underground bunker to go play some X-Box games, and re-wire their ham radios.
Or something.
“Fighting for principles” should mean changing the GOP from within, by attempting to change the hearts and minds of “establishment” voters.
It doesn’t mean screaming, “No fair, you jerk !” and then running for the hills. underground bunker.
We’ve been successful with Mike Lee, Ted Cruz, Rand Paul(though he’s a foreign policy isolationist looney tune), Pat Toomey, Marco Rubio, and in Texas for the LT Governor’s race Dan Patrick upended David Dewhurst.
We can continue to win in the future.
Maybe Mississippi isn’t the state, or maybe Chris McDaniel isn’t the candidate, but we must get up in the morning, eat our breakfast, lace up our shoes, and fight tomorrow.

But meanwhile, as we’re all feeling sorry for ourselves, the Left is plotting their next chess move.

Karl Rove was so clever he let the Democrats ambush his candidate into a tie in Florida, so brave they never spoke up when our efforts in Iraq were being savaged day after day, so wise, he ended up one step away from jail in the Plame case, surprisingly he hasn’t learned a lesson about any of this,

except he was able to collect a nice haul, out of the last election, and his flawed strategy as well as that of Stuart Stevens, seems to be in effect now,

if there is one true thing you can take away from doddering Thad Cochran and his very strange antics and the strange antics of his uniformly white white white allies what lied lied lied to black people to get his doddering ass nominated

This rancor could usefully challenge Republican leaders to grapple openly with the role of race within their coalition. And that a long-serving, quite conservative Republican senator could survive only by expanding the GOP electorate beyond the faithful is a reminder of just how conservative the party’s primary electorate has become. Broadening the party by admitting the inadequacy of anti-government shibboleths cannot be a one-state, one-time, one-incumbent proposition.

Dana (fe2228) — 6/26/2014 @ 1:07 pm

I didn’t see this before I wrote my last missive, but it’s precisely what I was talking about. The press is going to have a field day with the fat that the party establishment opportunistically accused its own base of racism to protect the career of one self-centered old fool. And purely on the basis that the self-centered old fool is acceptable to the party’s business donors, while he other candidate was merely favored by the voters.

The leftists were always going to try to make this election about race. No surprise there; what elections don’t they try to make about race. But not in their wildest wet dream did they think the Stupid Party would be stupid enough to do their job for them. It’s one thing for the left to accuse conservatives of racism. But to have the GOP confirm the truth of the charge is going to be a goldmine for them.

Everything, Benghazi, the IRS, the economy, Iraq, you name it, from here to November will be spun as non-issues the GOP is blowing all out of proportion just to lease its racist base. And how is that soul searching going, now that the GOP has admitted it has a problem with racism.

And I guess the WaPo hacks don’t read their own paper (can’t really blame them for that; I don’t waste my time reading it either). Here’s how conservative that supposedly “quite conservative Republican Senator” actually is.

Letting Karl Rove live in your head is sad. He’s a has been. He no longer has the power or clout some attribute to him. He’s no longer the “architect” or “the brain” from his Bush era high–and thank goodness. He’s a conservative version of the Democrats’ bugaboo Koch brothers.

” he ended up one step away from jail in the Plame case, surprisingly he hasn’t learned a lesson about any of this,”

I am no fan of Rove but this is nonsense. Plame was no more a secret agent than I am. The villain of the story was that fat slob Armitage who told FitzGerald he had told Russert and Novak who she was and then kept quiet while they went after Libby. If you want to know about Armitage, read read this story from a retired foreign service officer. The story is about a protege of Armitage’s/ We still don’t know if she was a North Vietnamese agent. She was a crook.

you should visit our friend gary gulrud’s underground bunker. i hear he has DirecTv, and a refrigerator. and a blueprint of the RNC headquarters.
and one of those air hockey tables that doubles as a ping-pong table.

i agree with you that what the MS GOP did was sleazy.
then again, i know that some of the more emotional people here will ignore that aspect of my comments.
cochran is a big porky pork guy who wants all sorts of federal dollars for his state. and i oppose that.
ultimately, there were not enough tea party votes in MS.
nonetheless, we need to still support him against the kooky Democrat.
seriously, if you’re still a democrat in 2014 after all this obama crap, then you’re a true believer in the stalinist cause.
and that is why we must defeat the democrat in MS.

you heard it here first—cochran will retire after a couple of years, and the MS governor will appoint someone to serve out his term.

Yes, the trenchant irony was Libby saved his bacon, when Armitage was under attack by the Christics and ‘the hand grenade with a bad hair cut’ he was on the board of one of the companies knee deep in Abu Ghraib, now he’s Erdogan’s man in D.C.

MCDaniel has been a critic of Bryant as well as Barbour, who do you think they will pick to replace them?

How do you feel about ISIS and Mao and Stalin and Pol Pot giving a bullet “to people right between the eyes” ?
In most of those cases, I’m going to go out on a limb and say that they did that because people like totally disagreed with their point of view.
Or something.

It seems many are missing the fundamental point here. It is not so much that Cochran won, it was the manner in which he won. Apparently calling teabaggers racists and courting Dem voters to a Republican primary is a good thing to some. And now, after being smeared, those teahadis are hat supposed to be good little soldiers and call in line.

we will discuss things further in the future.
hopefully, you stopped by hugo’s on ventura blvd and grabbed yourself some nice mexican.food, that is.
(for all of our non-los angelenos, hugo’s is a restaurant on ventura blvd that has mexican take-out)

and hopefully you grabbed a couple of dvds at eddie brandt’s on vineland.

No, you don’t get it.
Regardless of who did what to whom in the primary, there’s still a general election, and the winner of said general election is legally authorized to legislate—hurt feelings, or not.

None of us gets to say, “Oh, you know that bill that the Democrat Senator from Mississippi voted in favor of, well, I want to be exempt from it because my feelings were hurt about the Republican primary.”

Jesus, people.
There’s a goddamn slaughter going on in Iraq, in Nigeria, in Syria, in Libya, in Central African Republic, in Kenya, et al.
China is threatening Vietnam.
Russia is invading Ukraine, and may have other plans.

You mean the election that the IRS stepped all over the Tea Party, the ones where OSHA targeted Engelbrecht’s business, where suggestions of referrals to DOJ were made, that even playing field
where the same department paid moneys to effect rallies to orchestrate a miscarriage of justice,
even when said subject one he can barely show his face in public, and this was made possible by our feckless governor

The problem for those who call themselves Republicans is that it is harder and harder to say exactly what a Republican is these days. The great lesson from Mississippi is that Republican means, more or less, that if elected the party will reward its major donors, who are just different than the Democrats’ major donors. Policy differences are about different donors, not an actual agenda to shift the country in a different direction.
The Republicans have become the party of lobbyists, most of whom were on twitter celebrating their purchase.

What was done to McDaniel was sleazy.
But what the Democrats do to America is sleazier.
Like I said, there’s slaughter going on all over the world, yet we’re crying about hurt feelings. I bet those people getting slaughtered in Iraq and Nigeria aren’t crying over hurt feelings.

People are getting slaughtered in Iraq, because thanks to Rove’s sage counsel, there was no pushback against the Democratic lies, and the hard fought gains of our soldiers, sailors and airman were thrown away, Consequently we pulled out of Iraq, and the same thugs we had put away, are now on the march,

==It seems many are missing the fundamental point here. It is not so much that Cochran won, it was the manner in which he won. Apparently calling teabaggers racists and courting Dem voters to a Republican primary is a good thing to some. ==

JD- I am flummoxed. Who are the “many” who think this is a good thing? I have reviewed the comments top to bottom and I cannot find one single comment that approves of or justifies Cochran’s (or his handlers’) tactics. I do not see a single commenter who has not expressed a range of emotion from deep frustration to outright anger that the old coot lifer pol won. The main disagreement seems to be what to do now–try for another runoff in MS with its attendant difficulties, uncertainties, and expense; disengage from the political process entirely because the cards are too stacked and stock up on ammo; or do whatever we can to bury the hatchet at least enough to take the senate and replace Harry Reid with someone, anyone, to the right of him.
What do you think we should do?

World War III isn’t determined by the weaponry employed or the parties initiating hostilities. It is determined by a universal conflict and people dying in their thousands of thousands. Who here sees the slightest chance of an economic turnaround anywhere on Earth? Inflation is 10% here, premium is over $4, recession(2 consecutive quarters of contraction) is a slam dunk, and a contraction of 3% exceeds mere recession.

You can say I’m exaggerating current events, the present state of global circumstance, but diminishing it so is daft.

ES – I could give a shot about hurt feelings. You would do well to avoid speculating about that which you have no idea.

Elissa – the collective shoulder shrug and move forward and support the Team R candidate suggests that either people don’t really care about his actions, or place party loyalty above principles, and ethics. Fortunately, I dont live in MS. I hope Cochran can get enough Dem votes to win the general election.

I doubt Tea Party supporters like being called racists, so I understand why they are offended by what happened in Mississippi. I also know politics can be a dirty business, so I understand why Republicans who aren’t Tea Party supporters tend to discount what happened. But I’m curious where those who believe it’s time to move on and focus on electing Republicans, including Cochran, draw the line on dirty tricks. When it comes to electing Republicans, do the ends always justify the means?

145. It seems many are missing the fundamental point here. It is not so much that Cochran won, it was the manner in which he won. Apparently calling teabaggers racists and courting Dem voters to a Republican primary is a good thing to some. And now, after being smeared, those teahadis are hat supposed to be good little soldiers and call in line.

JD (d1200f) — 6/26/2014 @ 8:04 pm

On top of which, the Democrats and the LSM (bu I repeat myself) are supposed to fight by Marquess of Queensberry rules and not exploit the fact, nationwide, that the GOP confirmed their nastiest suspicions about the inherent racism of the Tea Party?

They’ve been waiting years for his chance. And Cochran and the GOP gave the the chance of a lifetime.

Note the question being discussed. Not “is the tea party racist.” It’s “And will branding the tea party ‘racist’ work?” Because no one thought the tea party was racist. They just wanted to know if slandering them as racist would work as an election year tactit? Note Mary Frances Berry’s reply.

Tainting the tea party movement with the charge of racism is proving to be an effective strategy for Democrats. There is no evidence that tea party adherents are any more racist than other Republicans, and indeed many other Americans. But getting them to spend their time purging their ranks and having candidates distance themselves should help Democrats win in November. Having one’s opponent rebut charges of racism is far better than discussing joblessness.

JD., none of us here live in MS and I think we are all glad about that! Unlike you apparently do, I don’t see a collective shoulder shrug going on here. But I also don’t see much in the way of a viable counter action being offered, either-just a lot of anger. I am having trouble sussing out what the preferred alternative action is or might be? With respect, again, what do you think should be done to both bring the party rightward and lessen the immediate power and control of the even more obviously lawless and dangerous Democrats? I assume this is not a goal you object to, but maybe I should not assume that.

Republicanism is done because democracy is done. Like the dying Russky extended populace, the idea of letting someone brighter, more resourceful, more powerful look out for one’s rheumatism and borscht has a certain appeal.

However, timing is everything, and the transition here, wherein the proles gain their cabbages and save their lives is infeasible for the Borg to accomplish. The latter will have to cut them loose, and soon.

I don’t know, Elissa. I do know that those crowing about shut up and support Team R aren’t doing anything to bring the party to the right, nor lessening the power and control of the Dems. Simply trotting Cochran back out there does nothing to lessen Reid’s power, and there is nothing in Cochrans history that suggests he will act as some final hedge against leftist lawlessness. What conservative ideals did Cochran push to win?

It seems the establishment Team R folks are more willing to fight against those to their right than those to their left. It reminds me of how Obama will fight against those that oppose him do edit ally far more ruthlessly than he will against opponents internationally.

What was done to McDaniel was sleazy.
But what the Democrats do to America is sleazier.

Unfortunately, there is not a lot of daylight between them. One on a grander scale of course, but in terms of principles – or lack thereof – about the same.

It matters, ES, not because someone’s feelings were hurt, but because a Republican – with the GOP behind him – not only got in the mud and played just as dirty as a Democrat, but essentially became that which the GOP claims to not only disdain, but lay the blame at the feet of for the number of issues tearing our country apart these days.

It matters because integrity no longer matters. It’s win at any price – compromise any principle, any belief, and scruples, because winning matters above all. Who benefits from his win the most? The GOP, not the people of MS.

There are horrible things taking place in the world, certainly, but that does not mean that we have to ignore or go along with what has happened. Frankly, if we did, that is surrendering and breeds more chaos internally, which will then impact everything externally that our nation faces. Elections matter. Integrity matters (or should). And on a personal level, who we support and how low we’re willing to go to get what we see as best for us and our country matters just as much.

eh… It matters because integrity no longer matters but should, and there are those of us who want to make sure its worth is not diminished as it was with Cochran’s win. It’s win at any price – compromise any principle, any belief, and scruples, because winning matters above all. Who benefits from his win the most? The GOP, not the people of MS.

China is experiencing a liquidity crisis as collateral for failing loans has turned up missing times 10. Repos to mop up foreign hot investment cash have been suspended. They are now building and floating military bases into the South China Sea.

No conservative ideals were pushed to win. He didn’t need them when he knew a more sure thing would come from manipulatively pushing the historical hot buttons of a voting bloc instead. Cochran is not stupid and he knows the people in his state well. And he was not above being utterly sleazy and contemptible in using them for his gain. Sadly, they’re too foolish to see that they were simply tools used to serve and prop up an old white guy. In Mississippi.

Ok JD. I was going on the premise that if we manage to take back the senate (even if it’s with flawed Cochran in tow as part of the caucus), we can get rid of Harry Reid. That to me is a major, major goal. I think Reid is insane and is a very dangerous individual. I think his mendacity and criminality as Majority Leader are an ongoing threat to this country and to our freedom . I do not want the democrat to win the senate race in MS because that would put the right one step further away from taking the senate in November. That’s why someone might be willing to hold their nose and vote for Cochran if there is not a successful challenge to the run-off results.
Trying to have control of both the house and senate for the final two years of Obama’s term might seem to be a baby step in starting to restore sanity and moving the country slowly back rightward with the Tea Party wing’s growing influence. But I think it’s a worthy and necessary effort. There are always going to be some piggys at the trough who have to be corralled, because that’s what politics is all about.

Reid is not insane, he’s much worse, Cornyn always manages to be three short of the majority in any one cycle, yet seemingly he’s never responsible, of course, worse comes to worse, they will point out
Cochran’s staffer who was caught up with Abramoff, yes Reid was as well, but that never stuck,

You can say I’m exaggerating current events, the present state of global circumstance, but diminishing it so is daft.

I can totally understand your exasperation, and I’m not surprised it’s merging into outright disgust and contempt. Yet I also relate to the tactical thinking, if you will, of people like Elephant Stone and Elissa.

BTW, many of your links are generally among the few posted to this forum that I’ll make an effort to click on and read since I find ongoing economic issues interesting. Or interesting in a way that the sight of a huge flaming auto accident on the side of the highway is interesting.

I often cite debacles like Venezuela, Mexico or France, or urban dystopias throughout the US, with Detroit as the poster child, because they’re a cautionary tale of just how bad things can get, or how bad things can remain, with most of the people in such places deserving a lot of the blame, if only because their political preferences never really change. Or stupid is as stupid does.

Then there’s the other horror story of places like Japan (or Spain, after having tossed out the Socialists but ending up with Herbert-Hoover type milquetoasts/squishes), which in spite of being managed by a generally right-leaning political hierarchy, still are going downhill in their own way.

Any combination of existing or newly elected moderate R’s, Teas, social cons, neocons and/or libertarians who when counted together in 2014 can give us a caucus large enough to dethrone Harry Reid is fine with me.

I don’t know, Elissa. I do know that those crowing about shut up and support Team R aren’t doing anything to bring the party to the right, nor lessening the power and control of the Dems. Simply trotting Cochran back out there does nothing to lessen Reid’s power, and there is nothing in Cochrans history that suggests he will act as some final hedge against leftist lawlessness. What conservative ideals did Cochran push to win?

This is nice rhetoric, but it’s not true. Look at his voting record. No matter what he thought (assuming he does think), he voted with the Republicans when the numbers were needed. He voted against 0bamacare, he voted with Team R on filibusters, and most importantly if returned he will vote for a R majority leader, and R chairmen of all committees. Do you want Cruz to chair a committee? Cochran is likely to vote for that, Childers is sure to vote against it.

I second that, if only because we (meaning American’s who aren’t leftwing loons) have no choice. Simply put, our backs are up against the wall.

Meanwhile, I was pondering the lunacy going on in one of the PIGS of Europe (or the “s” in “PIGS”), and I just happened to come across the following.

zerohedge.com, Tyler Durden on 06/26/2014:

It was a little over a year ago, just as the Cyprus deposit confiscation aka “bail in” was taking place, when we asked, rhetorically, if “Spain is preparing for its own deposit levy” when an announcement by Spain’s Finance Minister, Montoro, hinted at the imminent arrival of just that.

Of course, back in March 2013 imposing such a tax would immediately bring up images of parallel bank runs in Cyprus and visions of confiscated deposits, culminating in an immediate collapse of the otherwise already insolvent Spanish banking system. In other words, the timing picked by Montoro to reveal what was coming couldn’t have been worse. Now, however, things are different. So different, that as Bloomberg reported moments ago, Spain is set to create a tax on bank deposits.

Coming to an insolvent country near you…. everywhere.

^ Keep in mind that the Spanish voters booted out the Socialists/leftists running their country a few years ago, just as the Japanese booted out their leftwing prime minister back in December 2012. So the resulting irony is reminiscent to me of a George W Bush naively calling Islam a “religion of peace” right after 9-11. IOW, when even people who should know better are still acting not much better than, say, a Thad Cochran mimicking a deranged liberal like Al Sharpton, that’s one more sign we truly are living in an age (a hip new age) of insanity.

Any combination of existing or newly elected moderate R’s, Teas, social cons, neocons and/or libertarians who when counted together in 2014 can give us a caucus large enough to dethrone Harry Reid is fine with me.

elissa (0b3bcd) — 6/26/2014 @ 10:09 pm

Arlen Specter, the key vote says hello. So do Warner and Lugar. So dies, Collins, Murcowski and on and on.

No more voting for leftists because they have an R next to their name.

This ‘the democrats are worse’ is a ruthless long con meant to keep conservative backs against the wall, permanently, so that the establishment democrat/republicans can continue to get extremely rich. How much difference does it make to K Street, GE, Hollywood, or Wal-Mart if an establishment dem beats or loses to an establishment republican? The difference is basically bullshit for fundraisers to squawk about.

Do we want to continue to be desperate and have absolutely no realistic options? What is standing in the way of conservative republicans? It certainly isn’t Harry Reid and Barack Obama. They stand to the side as representing an alternative philosophy, rather than standing in their place, blocking out their political existence. The real political opponent of conservatism, the GOP establishment, who has no real philosophy or purpose.

Go back for the last twenty years and pretend that every single time you voted for a RINO that you had actually voted for the democrat in a cynical attempt to suffocate the RINOs out. What difference would it really make today? The nation is broke, regulations are extreme, foreign policy is a ridiculous joke, with no long term successes that originated in the last generation. The only difference is that the RINOs would be democrats by now, and perhaps conservatives would have found a political party.

Instead of that extreme, I merely refuse to vote for a Republican who hasn’t earned that vote. As soon as the argument becomes ‘but the democrats are worse’, I recognize the con and ignore that candidate. Voting for someone who is cynically putting conservative backs against the wall with no reform choices is completely out of the question.

Your link referring to Eric Cantor’s “scorched earth” retribution against Virginia’s GOP reinforces the lesson of this Cochran-vs-McDaniel battle. The GOP-e considers *US*, the conservative branch of their own party, a more urgent and deadly enemy than than they do the Democrats — their official political opponents.

Sounds to me like we’re in the middle of a GOP Civil War here.

From the intensity of their pushback, I’d say we’re making the establishment types reeeeeaaaaall nervous. (=Very Big Grin=)

It’s absolutely true that “We’ve gotta vote R to get a majority in the House/ Senate”; and equally true that “Voting for a Progressive with an R behind his name perpetuates the problem”. Everybody has to make up his own mind on how to handle that, come Election Day.

But in the meantime we could rattle Republican cages at the state and national level, by calling/ emailing to say, “Not one dime out of me while you thumb your noses at your conservative base and promote Progressive policies. No. Not gonna happen. And if you push Jeb Bush for president I WILL NOT vote for him.” {- or whatever your personal hot button is}.

They keep tabs on what topics their voters bring up — so, keep leaning on them; pester the daylights out of them; MAKE THEM HEAR YOU. Yes, some are totally co-opted by the Big Donors, but some really want to represent We-the-People. Who knows, maybe YOUR comment will be the one that makes somebody re-evaluate his position.

You may not have known but the voters were told erroneously and deliberately from the beginning total lies about Thad’s voting record, his home life, his sexual orientation, his opponent was given untold millions in indirect support. Do I think thad was too old? Yep – Do I think McDaniel should be the senator – that’s up to MS – apparently not, they twice had a look and twice said no.

I can understand the disappointment but the voters said no, nothing more can be done, we got a really old senator back in congress….

So letting one of Specter’s D opponents win would have made things better?!

Warner, Lugar, Collins, & Murkowski are still voting with the Rs, last I heard.

Milhouse (b95258)

Silly rabbit, the point is they are rigging the vote to giving you the illusion of choice. It’s no different than the politburo where you had candidates to choose from, but they’d all give you the same result. That’s why we are so angry. We had a choice and chose correctly, but they stole it away to make sure we didn’t have a choice in November. They rigged the vote.

Jay Cost’s piece in the Weekly Standard must not be missed. He is correct, brutal, and pointed in his analysis of arrogant GOP leaders and their need to get a handle on the right’s upset and disconnected electorate. He’s also spot on in his diagnosis that the insurgent R candidates absolutely must be of a higher quality than many that have run–and that just being a firebrand making promises to conservatives is not necessarily enough to warrant our trust nor automatically appeal to a broader general electorate. See what you think.

More fallout from the MS run-off. McDaniels supporter, lawyer, Tea Party vice chair, and also one of the three men who were arrested and charged with the nursing home caper has committed suicide. Sad. POlitics is not worth this, people.

…McDaniel might have been the better Republican for former Rep. Travis Childers to face in November, but now Democrats are banking on Cochran’s strategy of trying to woo Democrats and blacks, which has upset tea party activists, to their advantage.

McDaniel supporters are irate that Cochran won a GOP primary by reaching across the aisle. Now some of his backers are ambivalent about whether they’ll come out at all in November — and if they don’t, that could create a rare opening for a Democrat here…

…Cochran dedicated most of his efforts to pursuing Democrats, and specifically the black community. He went so far as to threaten his new voting base by saying McDaniel would cut food stamps, and made conspicuous charges of racism against both McDaniel and the Tea Party. There were further allegations, substantiated in news reports, of “street money” paid to Democratic fixers to turn out the votes of, shall we say, “new” Republican voters crossing over to vote for Cochran on a one-time basis.

The result was exactly what Cochran and his allies, including former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour, wanted and needed. Cochran managed to pull in some 35,000 “crossover” Democratic voters in a race he won by less than 7,000 votes. This created what appears to be a peculiar result: McDaniel won a relatively clear majority of Republican votes in a Republican primary, and still lost the election by a fifty-one to forty-nine margin….

…On Wednesday, I had a pair of discussions with well-placed staffers working for GOP senators who are considerably more conservative and in touch with their Republican voters than Cochran.

One was effusive in praising Erickson’s piece as spot-on. “He’s right,” said the staffer. “Especially when he says the base hates the leadership, which is the number one thing we have to fix as a party, and this makes that 1,000 times worse.”

…“It’s just what you do,” said one of the staffers. “It’s generally accepted that we probably can’t win the Senate if we lose our own people, so when Cochran’s people ask for help raising money, the answer is yes.”

…there wasn’t a lot of attention paid to where the funds being raised would go.

…But most of all, there is a lot of soul-searching going on—particularly on the part of a number of the Senate’s more outspoken conservatives, who might have gone into Mississippi to help McDaniel but for their having made a pledge not to campaign against incumbents. “That pledge would have to presuppose that Cochran wouldn’t run a Democratic campaign in a Republican primary, right?” said one of the staffers.

It’s possible, even likely, that Thad Cochran’s people used NRSC money simply to rent the Mississippi Democratic Party’s GOTV machine for a few weeks. Now that they’ve managed to thoroughly insult the GOP base with it, the Democrats will want it back for the general election.

Me. I care. And I’ll tell you what else. If I knew that the world was going to blow up tomorrow and that I was going to lose everything I and my ancestors had ever worked for, and that I would die along with everyone I care about, I’d still try to grab as much love and beauty and joy and happiness today as I possibly could– rather than waste precious time worrying over the morrow’s inevitable doom.

askeptic I’m not sure I understand your comment. I said that’s what I’d do if literally the world was going to blow up-literally tomorrow (not slowly go to hell in a handbasket and crumble to dust or burn over time). Do you know something I don’t know? And if so, just who is going to be ringing those bells?

I always thought the bells were metaphorical, but in our Paranoid-Schizophrenic World – who knows.
But, it is the wise man (and woman) who is prepared for the worst, and hopes for the best.
And right now, you have to be an Uber* Optimist to think that things are going to get better in the short-term.

Update: although Mississippi Conservatives PAC (the anti-McDaniel group run by pro-Cochran forces including Henry Barbour who sits on the RNC itself — as one the ‘top three’ repubs from his state) has never admitted this *particular* flyer was theirs, that was not all that happened this past June.

If you do some googling for the All Citizens of MS PAC, run by Bishop Crudup (who in his radio spots encourages “every registered voter” aka including illegal-double-voters to come out for the runoff), you will see that not only was all their funding from Henry && MS Conservatives, but that in fact Henry now publicly agrees with the racist tactics employed.

Of course, his admission of the connection only came after he got caught; before incontrovertible evidence came out, Henry was completely denying any such link. Similarly, Bishop Crudup also formerly claimed to be getting money from “many sources” but as yet the only funding shown in his financial filings for All Citizens was entirely 100% from MS Conservatives.

McDaniel is still working on filing his election-challenge … not least because, in somewhere between 9 and 22 counties, the local election-officials (circuit clerks and election commissioners for the most part) have been delaying access, restricting access, or extracting fees for access. McDaniel does not want verification of future elections to cost tens of thousands of bucks, and so is trying to fight this in state court — and it looks like going to federal court will be the only option. Meanwhile, although investigations into the 58 counties that *did* provide full access to all the election materials has turned up thousands of irregularities (even team Cochran admits there are over 900 probably-illegal votes), unless McDaniel gets access to the remaining counties… the ones where fraud is most suspected in some cases and in other cases just a case of confusing and conflicting laws causing pointless delays… the tea leaves suggest team McDaniel will not have an airtight legal challenge for overturning the runoff-results.

Still, my prediction is that enough access will be granted, and enough hard evidence will be gathered, to justify an legal challenge of the runoff. That will drag through most of August, if the current strategy of team Cochran continues (delay and delay whilst using the controlled media to their advantage). But if the challenge succeeds … always a tricky thing in a corrupt state … then there will be a redo-runoff come late August or maybe during September. PPP polls suggest that Cochran’s popularity amongst repubs is 39% approval and 53% disapproval, as of mid-July.

Fine folks at Patterico, can you condense the legal crazy stuff down into a nice explanatory article? Ideally, with pictures, which shows the technically-legal-crossover-votes, the almost-certainly-illegal-double-voters, and distinguishes the partisanship issue from the race issue? (PPP data suggests that the “dem” voters … MS does not register voters by party affiliation legally speaking but opinion polls by contrast do ask what affiliation respondents consider themselves … “dem” voters who participated in the r-runoff of 6/24 were about half caucasian and about half african-american … but you would never know that from the race-focus of mainstream coverage.)

Plenty of the recent McDaniel court-case filings seem to be indicating that tally-marks in the 6/3 dem-primary were retroactively changed, although whether by poll-workers or by MSGOP county leadership or by the employees of the circuit clerk offices, is unclear. In the Hinds county situation, for instance, McDaniel folks originally said there were in the neighborhood of 1500 irregularities (not all of them illegal-double-voters), reported circa 6/27. By the time the 7/7 certified numbers came out, pro-Cochran MSGOP chair of Hinds county Pete Perry was admitting to only 300-some illegal votes. However, there are pictures in the court-filings of the democratic poll-books, where voters were marked as having voted in the d-prime on 6/3 … and then later that marking was crossed out, thereby “legalizing” what otherwise would have been an illegal-double-vote.

Anyways, I think that the situation in MS still deserves attention. The longer the post-June investigation continues, the more nasty things keep turning up.

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